WIP 30 - Creating a Culture of Care: Maintaining Wellness While Reducing Callouts in Residency

Publication Number: WIP 30.7683

Miriam Mae L. Furr, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States; Lauren C. Ferguson, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States; Lisa Hainstock, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States

Background: Physician burnout and overall wellbeing of residents can be both a trigger and consequence of callouts in a residency program. Within the University of Virginia Pediatric Residency, the backup system consists of 4 levels of residents who are available to be called in from either a dedicated backup or elective time. During the 2023-2024 academic year, the backup system was completely depleted 15% of the time backup was needed. When the backup system is depleted, the system is unavailable to use in a more supportive manner such as personal development activities like conferences and job interviews. In addition, this interrupts elective time. Prior to July 2024, the call-out policy centered around “disaster,” promoting a culture of work-to-burnout rather than wellness.

Objective: The study goal is to decrease the number of call-outs and utilization of the complete back up system from July 2024 to January 2025 while maintaining overall resident wellness and mitigating burnout.

Design/Methods: A mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative data will be used in order to analyze both number of call-outs and overall wellness of the resident cohort. This study will look at two main interventions: a new PTO policy implemented July 2024 and didactic sessions promoting wellness and burnout mitigation presented July and September 2024. The new PTO policy includes new elements of time-tracking such as make-up days, and five days of PTO to use at the resident’s discretion. Ongoing quantitative analysis includes the number of call-outs and complete depletions of the backup system after implementing the new PTO policy from July 2024 to January 2024, while taking into account seasonality and reasons for call-outs. The second arm of this project includes qualitative data from resident interviews and focus groups to inform the perception of call outs as a proxy to resident wellness pending IRB approval. This mixed method approach provides a more thorough understanding of the relationship between resident wellness and call-outs/backup utilization within residency programs.